1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thin film transistor, a method of manufacturing the same, an organic light emitting display apparatus including the thin film transistor, and a method of manufacturing the same, and more particularly, to a thin film transistor having reduced contact resistance between an active layer and source and drain electrodes, a method of manufacturing the same, an organic light emitting display apparatus including the thin film transistor, and a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, portable thin flat panel display devices have been widely used. Among the flat display devices, electroluminescent devices, which are self-emitting devices, have advanced characteristics such as wide viewing angle, excellent contrast, and shot response time, and thus are considered to be the next generation of display devices. Additionally, an organic light emitting display apparatus including an organic material forming a light emitting layer may form brighter images, and has lower operating voltage and shorter response time compared to an inorganic light emitting display apparatus. Furthermore, the organic light emitting display apparatus may realize multiple colors.
A flat panel display devices such as an organic light emitting display apparatus includes a plurality of pixels. A thin film transistor is used as an operating device to control operations of each of the pixels. The thin film transistor includes an active layer having a source/drain region and a channel region, a gate electrode corresponding to the channel region and a source/drain electrode corresponding to the source/drain region.
Since the active layer electrically contacts the source and drain electrodes, the contact resistance between the active layer and the source and drain electrodes is one of the critical factors that influences the electrical characteristics of the thin film transistor.
When the active layer and the source and drain electrodes are formed as thin films, however, the contact resistance may increase due to poor interface characteristics between the active layer and the source and drain electrodes, and thus the characteristics of the thin film transistor and the organic light emitting display apparatus including the thin film transistor may be decreased.